Page 480 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

the romance from the daily parting, when her husband
followed up his kiss with the tender inquiry, ‘Shall I send
some veal or mutton for dinner, darling?’ The little house
ceased to be a glorified bower, but it became a home, and

the young couple soon felt that it was a change for the
better. At first they played keep-house, and frolicked over
it like children. Then John took steadily to business,
feeling the cares of the head of a family upon his
shoulders, and Meg laid by her cambric wrappers, put on a
big apron, and fell to work, as before said, with more
energy than discretion.
While the cooking mania lasted she went through Mrs.
Cornelius’s Receipt Book as if it were a mathematical
exercise, working out the problems with patience and
care. Sometimes her family were invited in to help eat up
a too bounteous feast of successes, or Lotty would be
privately dispatched with a batch of failures, which were
to be concealed from all eyes in the convenient stomachs
of the little Hummels. An evening with John over the
account books usually produced a temporary lull in the
culinary enthusiasm, and a frugal fit would ensue, during
which the poor man was put through a course of bread
pudding, hash, and warmed-over coffee, which tried his
soul, although he bore it with praiseworthy fortitude.

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